How to deal with hitting/scratching??

ginsing

DD has started hitting me in the face. Like, looks at me and intentionally hits/scratches me in the face. Hard.   She knows exactly what she is doing. At first I ignored it. (This has been going on for a few days). Then I tried giving her hand a little squeeze and saying "NO" and "No Hitting Mommy" in a very stern voice. It didn't work  - she immediately did it again. So I said, "NO HIT MOMMY" very sternly, gave her hand a squeeze, and put her down immediately and walked away.  That didn't work either, b/c she did again this morning.

Where is my sweet baby?? How do I address this behavior?

Telly21182

I so hope someone has suggestions!  We're in the same boat.  Ty is a very rough kid, but now he's starting to show signs of knowing what he's doing, and stern voices aren't helping yet.

ginsing

Thank goodness I'm not alone. Sophie is really rough too. Last night she left a welt on my face from where her nail scratched me. This sucks.

Telly21182

Yeah, it sucks too because Ty is so good generally, but then he goes through spurts where he wants to hit, so I'm not used to discipline. I'm not a fan of it and it's only just started

Katie Jean

We are in the same Boat! Audrey does it mostly to my DH. When we say stearnly NO she giggles. so hard to be tough with her. We have mostly been just putting her down and waiting till she settles down. Hope someone has other ideas!

AlyciaandRich

I would say no and put her down for a  minute, repeat as needed.

LaceFace14

Another mommy being abused by her baby over here. No helpful suggestions, just empathy. He's also biting lots including my nipples. 

tesary

Mine does the same thing! Nothing I have tried so far has worked. She is also a very rough little girl. She has even kind of started to bite herself when she gets frustrated.

bt3701

Ugh, I am slapped, grabbed and scratched all the time!!! I don't know what's best, but I try to redirect the behavior after I tell her, "no, that hurts mommy." As much as we think our babies "know" what they are doing, I kind of doubt they have the maturity to understand that their actions are harmful. I guess I see it as they are trying to see how they can get attention. 

just kita

My LO is scratching the $h!t out of me too. I've tried telling him "NO" and something along the lines of  "gentle touches only" while holding his hand and showing him a gentle touch instead, but he just thinks it's funny. I don't know when he's going to be able to understand me, but I'd rather try to correct bad behaviors early than late. 

MLF135

When DS first got teeth he was biting me on my shoulder, the only way I could get him to stop was to screetch "ow" pretty loud when he bit me.  He would get scared and start to cry (then I felt bad of course) but it made him stop doing that.

ginsing

Thanks ladies. It's really challenging to deal with b/c she just keeps doing it over and over. I say No, put her down, say that hurts Mommy, gentle touch, etc, but it's not working. Hopefully it's a phase, and if we keep correcting it, they will eventually understand that they can't do that.  Sigh!!